The Guns of Navarone (1961)
Gregory Peck's stalwart band of Blighty's finest heroes risk
life and limb to destroy huge German gun emplacements threatening
Allied ships in the Aegean and rescue a garrison of stranded
soldiers.
The six-man commando team consists of mountaineer Captain
Mallory (Peck), humanitarian explosive’s expert Corporal Miller
(Niven), Greek resistance fighter Andrea Stravos (Quinn), British
Major Franklin (Quayle), young marksman Private Pappadimos
(Darren) and ruthless killer CPO Brown (Baker).
Meeting them along the way are resistance leader Maria (Papas),
who is Pappadimos' older sister, and Anna (Scala), a beautiful
Greek girl who was tortured by the Germans. There's little love
lost between Mallory and Stavros in their ongoing conflict over
leadership, especially when it becomes known that there's a
traitor in their midst. Maria weeds out the traitor, but there are
still those guns to take care of.
A bloody hand-to-hand skirmish between the good guys and the
Nazis, an enormous tidal wave, and scenes of heart-stopping
tension ensue as our heroes brave the elements whilst scaling a
treacherous sea-facing cliff.
Derring-do adventure at its finest, this tale of heroism and
good old death-or-glory courage was absolutely dripping with 60's
post-war patriotism. The Guns of Navarone has a righteous
cause, a fiendish foe, impossible odds and will have you pulling
imaginary salutes to your commanding officer as the film reaches
its glorious finale.
Filmed on location in Rhodes by veteran director J. Lee
Thompson, and noteworthy for Bill Warrington’s Oscar-winning
special effects, Carl Foreman adapted his screenplay from Alistair
MacLean's best-selling novel. There was a less than successful
1977 sequel, Force Ten From Navarone.
TRIVIA NOTE
Future Led Zeppelin manager Peter Grant (a former
wrestler) body-doubled for Anthony Quinn during filming.
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